• ‘I moved to AD to rescue my people from debt, hunger’
By Adetutu Folasade-Koyi
Former governorship aspirant in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Olusola Oke has opened up on reasons for moving from the party to the Alliance for Democracy (AD).
Oke scored 576 votes to emerge third in the primary, which held amid tight security in Akure.
A former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Chief Rotimi Akeredolu won with 669 votes as against Olusegun Abraham who polled 635 votes.
Oke told Daily Sun in a telephone interview that he specifically moved to the AD because the APC is sick. He also alluded to lack of internal democracy in the APC.
The former national legal adviser of the PDP, between 2008 and 2012, also added that the decision to dump the APC was because a vote for Eyitayo Jegede, governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) meant a vote “to allow Governor Olusegun Mimiko continue in office.”
Born in Ilowo, a coastal town in Ilaje local government area of the state, Oke disclosed that his people mandated him to go to AD.
“I was looking for a way and AD is the way. APC is sick… If you have 10 children and you lose seven, is that not a problem? We pleaded with APC to be the vehicle to give change in Ondo but the party said it is “agbeti.”
“Well, I am simply following the voice of my people. If war is taking my people, we have to respond. We are fighting for Mimiko not to govern Ondo again.
“I went to APC and i thought there was internal democracy there, but, when things went the way they did, my people said I should move to AD.
“If we don’t fight now and allow the statusquo remain, it means Mimiko will be adding to the people’s suffering if Jegede wins. My movement to AD is to ensure that never again will the people of Ondo State go to bed hungry. We are fighting against the debt profile of Ondo State which rose from N30 billion to N108 billion; we are fighting against a system where workers have not been paid for the past six months…Look, people are hungry.” Oke dismissed talks that Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu instricuted him to move to AD. The governorship election is scheduled to hold on November 26.
Meanwhile, Jegede has promised to ensure the Mother and Child hospital and mega school projects initiated bythe Mimiko administration is built in the three senatorial districts in the state.
He said schools that are yet to meet the standard of the Mimiko-led administration’s initiated millennium compliant Mega schools in the state will be upgraded to mega status.
Jegede said he is determined to make what he described as, profound statements, with governance.